It was worth it
by FearandLoathingXIX
Summary: Aimlessly silly RufusxAlicia oneshot. For some reason, Rufus still smiles even when he's hanging upside down from a tree.


First piece for Valkryie profile (2), simply because there is not nearly enough love for these two.

And because Rufus is hot? Did I mention that?

He is.

Very.

* * *

"Uh…Rufus?" Alicia, lost Princess of Dipan started nervously, fingers laced together behind her back as she hovered behind the half-elf Rufus.

"Yeah?" He replied brightly, fingers intently focused on a long length of rope, one end of which he'd slung over a nearby tree branch, "What is it?"

"Uh…" she stammered, thankful that she only had to focus on his back and ponytail, if he was actually looking at her then gods only know how she'd get to the point. "What…are you doing?"

He let out a low chuckle and tightened the final knot in the sling, then stood up to observe his handiwork, "wait and see, Princess," he said with an almost sinister grin, kicking a couple of wet leaves over the noose with the toe of his shoe.

"Oh," Alicia gasped, taking a few timid steps forwards towards the area he'd been crouched over, as if to look for what he'd been doing. But before she could a calloused hand shot out to grab her upper arm.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he remarked alarmingly close to her right ear, hand still clamped over the ruffled sleeve and not enough give in his fingers to let her escape any time soon.

"I…oh…" she simmered weakly, trying not to think about the butterflies in her stomach as his hand slid smoothly down the length of her arm and his deft fingers wrapped around her own.

"Quick, he's coming," the archer whispered, hurriedly tugging Alicia back into the shadow of a tree trunk until her back was pressed against his chest, and she wasn't sure if it was his heart or hers, but something was beating fit to burst between the two of them.

"Shh, don't say a word," he told her when she took a breath as if to speak, and his fingers began to absent-mindedly trace a pattern on the palm of her hand as they hid together in the darkness.

Oblivious to the two figures hidden from his view, or the events that had just conspired between them, Arngrim strolled into camp whistling blithely. As usual there was a muted silence about the place - his companions, bar that noisy, green-haired archer, all seemed to be people of a few words.

All of a sudden the Mercenary heard something snap below him, followed by a low hiss as the rope tightened around his ankle and whipped him up into the air, upside-down and fuming.

At the same moment an ivy-haired man fell out of the background and onto the floor, wiping the tears from his eyes as he laughed himself stupid.

"Rufus!!" Arngrim roared as the archer wrapped his arms around his aching stomach and rolled around, still in fits of helpless laughter.

"You…should've…seen…that…one…coming…" he hooted between gasps for air, tipping his head back languorously and looking up at the furious and now red-faced man pulling a dagger out of his boot to cut the rope.

"Start running." The man threatened as he swung, **"now."**The half-elf's eyes widened for a moment as Arngrim severed the snare and landed clumsily on the ground, but that only caused more helpless laughter from the figure on the floor, instead of an incentive to run away.

"I would if I could," Rufus sniggered as he rolled onto his front and pushed himself into a sitting position, "I really…AHH!"

"You punk-of-a!!"

Alicia heard the resulting scuffle from her place; frozen in the spot Rufus had taken her to, and as she listened to the protesting cries for help as the unfortunate half-elf found himself bound and hung by the very trap he laid, she tried to shake the tingling feeling in her hand where he'd held it.

'_Don't fall for him,' _Silmeria told her firmly, like a mother warning a child, _'It will only lead to trouble.'_

"I don't know what you are talking about," Alicia lied as she buried her hands behind her, and moved nervously out of the shadows, coming across an upside-down half-elf in the process. Who, for some bizarre reason, was still smiling even though he'd been tied upside down to a tree.

"It was worth it." He proclaimed proudly when Alicia caught his eye, arms crossed coolly over his chest and the end of his hair touching the ground, "be an angel and let me down?"

She blushed furiously and quickly looked around for something to cut the rope with, all she ever carried was her sword, no hidden or useful daggers anywhere…another thing she failed at.

"There's a hunting knife strapped to the side of my boot," he remarked when she appeared a little helpless, "I, uh, can't really reach it myself," he grinned, and she faintly smiled back as she awkwardly stepped closer and reached up to look for said knife.

"I…think I found it," she mumbled quietly as she tugged an enamelled handle from a strap on his boot, going up on the tips of her toes to reach it and giving Rufus the briefest opportunity to catch a flash of her hips as the bottom of her top rode up.

He ran his tongue along the back of his lower lip thoughtfully when confronted with this…opportunity, there seemed to be something ever-so desirable about the hips of a princess, more so than Leone or other women.

However, he ended up a little _too_ thoughtful in this matter, because he didn't realize she'd cut the rope until he fell.

"Ahhhh! What the hell!" he cried upon crashing, unsurprisingly headfirst, to the ground.

"I'm sorry!" Alicia fell to her knees and leant over him, staring with rapt concern into the archer's emerald-green eyes, "are you hurt?"

He smiled wryly, "I'll survive."

Then, upon his sitting up quicker than expected she jumped back like a spark off flint, backing away from him as if the mere suggestion of closeness between them were a bad idea.

He threw her a sceptical look, "I promise you I don't bite," it was teasing, light-hearted; but she blushed all the same, "Uh, Alicia?" he tried when she moved to get up.

"…Yes?" she answered, half-crouching but one knee down as if she were kneeling; so not quite gone.

"Do you…I mean," he grasped for the right words, "after all this is over," he stated blankly, 'over' hopefully meaning defeating the gods and regaining all their lives, _his_ especially, "what are you gonna do?"

She paused, she hadn't thought past leaving the castle, let alone what she'd do _after _this – it was all Silmeria.

"Um..." after a few drawn out moments of this he cut her off with a warm snigger.

"Me too." She smiled at him.

He liked it when she smiled, most of all when it was at him.

"Hey, if you're not too busy being a princess and all I could stop by Dipan and say hi, yunno, while I'm aimlessly wandering the world." He grinned, to which she smiled again and finally stood up, then offered him a hand to do the same.

"I'd like that." she said as his palm lay against hers once more, and she tried to block out the feeling of never wanting to let go before Silmeria picked up on it and scolded her again. "I'd like that a lot."

* * *

Sweetest brand of fluff alive, but why do I see Rufus constantly messing about and pranking people?

Probably because he is so awesome.

Well, if you liked leave a review and if enough people say inspiration things I might pick up the keyboard and write something more for these two :P


End file.
